The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-02-22

under the timber culture, and $40 acres
under the desert land law, making a.
total of ,120 acres. The committee had
considered it wiser and more humane.
| that the land should be distributed in
smaller quantities to greater number
of people. Outrageous, scandaIous
abuse, had grown up under the existing
laws, which had been taken advantage
of by cormorants and land sharks in
order to secure millions Of acres
of the public land. These abuses
the committee had sought to correct.
The bill had gone to the Senate, which
had adopted substitute for it, practic-
ally agreeing to all the House had
asked, but it had gone further and iz-
serted several provisions to which the
House conferees could not agree. One
of these provisions would result in con-
firming nine-tenths of ell the fraudulent
entries, amounting to millions of acres.
The Senate conferees, however, had
agreed that this proposition be ellmin-
ated. The seventh section OF the Sem
ate substitute permitted the entry OF
800 acres of mountainous land
under the homestead law, though
the House conferees regarded this
provision as i'll advised and as establish
ing q new classification OF public lands
They had yielded this point. Another
provision of the substitute made sub
ject to private entry public lands here
tofore offered for sale, and remaining
unsold.. This provision had not been
thoroughly discussed in conference,
but it was probable that an agreement
might be reached upon it, had it not
been for the irreconcllable difference of
opinion among the confereeS as to the
eighth section of the substitute. That
section provided that after the final
proof of the claimant and the issuing of
duplicate receivers receipt, if it shall
| be proved to the itisfaction of the
Commissioner that ( aud has EFT .re d
into title, unle it shall appear that
| land had been sold or conveyed 10 b, ma
ride pIrchas for a valuable C, Ms er :
ton, the Comm s,ioner shall susp nd
the issuing Of a patent for the same.
and file with the Acknowledgement an
order to commence proceedings to set
aside such title, il in his judgment the
proceedings can be maintained. This
action he regarded as inimical to every
idea of sound legislation and of morals
and honesty.
Payson (Illinois) said that. politically,
| he had never had an iota of sympathy
with the man who occupied the posi-
ton of Commissi Jner-Geueral of the
Land Office. He did not stand here as
Mr.. Sparks defender, politically. but
he did know that the Commissioner
had been endeavoring to do his
| duty as an executive officer.
His attention had never been called
to any act in the Commissioner
administer ton OF the Office, that he at
tributed 10 sentimene other than
that designated. Replying to the OBJ
lection that the bill would be in the in
terest of cattle companies, and the as
sertion made in the Senate that special
agents never assalled the title of cattle
syndicates, he read from the record of
the land office to show that recently
! 1852 entries, covering 350,520 acres
J claimed by cattle companies, had been
cancelled in section OF the country
, which could be covered by the hand on
, an ordinary map of the United States.
. Referring to the abuses which ex-
listed under the existing law, he
said that one cattle company, the
head of which was in the gallery list
ening to him. owned and controlled an
extent of territory 50x150 miles, an area
larger than the whole State of Rhode
Island. This company was composed
largely OF foreigners, and an American
citizen could not rest his foot upon this
large area, of which government had
been robbed. He instanced also the Es-
ties Park entry in Colorado, the title of
which was, by fraud, invested in The
Earl of Dunraven. In his verdancy
when he first came to Washington, he
supposed that when thing of this kind
was brought to the attention of a
gov rnment official, something could
be done to cause a reversal.
He had gone to the Department OF
Justice four different times, trying to
get Brewster to file bill to set aside
the title; he had not succeeded. He
and now he was done.
Mr.. Symes (Colorado) said that the
Department of Justice had frequently
acted, and that thousands and thous-
ands of acres had been restored to the
public domain in Colorado. In 1877 he
had been employed by the government
as special counsel in twenty six suits
involving land titles, and gained every
one of them.
Mr.. Payson-On account Of fraud IN
entry2
Mr.. Symes-Yes.
Mr.. Payson-So it seems there is
some fraud in Colorado?
Mr.. Symes stated that he had never
denied it; but there was more oppor-
tunity for reform under the present
system than under that favored by the
committee on public lands.
Mr.. Payson inquired whether the
gentleman meant to intimate that the
committee was not in favor of land
| reform.
Mr.. Symes retorted that the COM
mittee intimated that nobody else was,
because there were some frauds in Col
orado and elsewhere, which the COM
mlttee wished to unearth. The
committee wanted to put it into
the power of crank commissioner
to issue a sweeping order which
would deprive honest settlers of their
homes without giving them an opporA
tunity to prove their honesty. Mr..
Payson then proceeded to argue in
favor of. the House confere' standing
firm IN their position, believing that the
Senate proposition would be suhyersive
OF the best interests of government and
provocative of fraud. He yielded to no
man in his 6esre to stand by the man
who was seeking to make home for